Work, school, sports, life…they are all the same in that at one point or another, you strive for success. We all say or think, “I want to be successful at this, and I want to be successful at that”; and that is good, in fact, that is great. But let me ask this…how many of us have actually stopped and defined success – identifying and setting the success criteria, before we set down our path? I have seen it in players, at businesses, heck, even with myself…where we say we want to be better…without defining what better looks like or what steps we need to take to get there.

Desire – “The Want”
If I want to be a “better” hitter, I first need to define what better looks like – we could say something like, I want to hit the ball harder, or I want to hit the ball farther…sure those are nice goals; but they might be hard to measure for success.

Define – Measurable & Attainable Goals
Maybe a better option would be to look for improvement in a measurable statistic such as Slugging Average. Slugging Average is the measure of total bases achieved on hits divided by at-bats (TB/AB). In general, a Slugging Average about .550 is considered elite.

Perhaps for pitching, instead of saying, “I want to be a better pitcher, I want to throw harder”, instead focus on a measurable statistic such as WHIP (walks and hit per inning pitched) – it is essentially the number of base runners a pitcher has allowed per inning pitched. A lower WHIP indicates a better pitching performance. Elite Whip is 1.00, Average is 1.30, and 1.60+ is poor.

So, for these examples, we may want the hitter to set her goal as having a Slugging Average at or above .500; and the pitcher may want to set her goal at having a WHIP lower than 1.30.

Design – The Plan, identify the effort needed which will result in a desirable outcome.
Now that we have our attainable and measurable goals, we can get to work on designing how it is that we are going to actually attain those goals. For the hitter in our example, let’s say she is susceptible to pitches on the outside black of the plate – she either watches it for a strike, or poorly hits the ball. So, she decides her path for success is to set-up a tee on the outside front corner of the plate and hit 3 sets of 35 balls to right field. These reps, the work, this is what will make the difference, and she knows that. Thru these reps she further develops her hand-eye coordination and contact point identification – which she is burning into her muscle memory by training her body to know what to do in game time situations. Now when a pitch in on the outside black of the plate, she makes the opposing pitcher pay for it.

For the pitcher in our example, let’s say up to this point she has been a 1 pitch wonder – fastballs, fastballs, fastballs. Maybe once upon a time she thought about throwing a change-up, but could not get it over the plate, so reverted back. Pitchers need either pinpoint accuracy, or multiple pitches in their arsenal – without either, they are going to have limited success. Our pitcher gets this, and decides that she needs to work on driving with her lower-half and keeping her arm on the powerline in order to increase accuracy and power. She also knows for optimum success she needs to work on mastering at least one secondary pitch – a change-up, a rise-ball, or even a curve-ball. So, she does some research on different pitch grips, and commits to throwing 120 pitches twice a week, with 30 of the pitches during each session used to work on a secondary pitch.

Dedication – Believe in the process and have no limits.
We have the desire, we were able to define measurable and attainable goals, and we defined the game plan…now the last step, and really, the most important step, is dedication.

Be committed to, and believe in, the process. Have no limits. This is the point in where most people falloff – they do not stay committed to the process because – guest what, it is work. Talk is cheap, if you want anything in life, you need to work hard for it.

Dedication and hard work make you better. Working smarter makes you better. Feeling bad about failure and doing nothing does not make you better. If something happens that you do not like, you have two options; either live with it, or do something about it.

If you have the desire, and you have defined attainable goals, as well as designed a game plan on how to reach those goals, then there is no reason you cannot reach your goals if you are dedicated to the process.

“Dreams don’t work unless you do.”

“Don’t be upset with the results you didn’t get with the work you didn’t do.”

“You can’t have a million-dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic.”

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion.”

#Dedicated2TheGame